Take a look at the Tigers' lineup (when Curtis Granderson's healthy), along with their full-season career-high batting averages:

Curtis Granderson: (.302, 612 AB, 2007)

Placido Polanco: (.341, 587 AB, 2007)

Gary Sheffield: (.330, 576 AB, 2003)

Magglio Ordonez: (.363 595 AB, 2007)

Miguel Cabrera: (.339 576 AB, 2006)

Carlos Guillen: (.320 543 AB, 2006)

Edgar Renteria: (.332 494 AB, 2007)

Ivan Rodriguez*: (.334 527 AB, 2004)

Jacque Jones**: (.304 517 AB, 2003)

* Pudge hit .347 in 2000, but had just 363 at-bats.
** Jones is a .294 career hitter vs. righties (which is all he'll face).

I realize career-high averages of players like Sheffield, Pudge and Ordonez aren't likely to be repeated, but except for Jones, Granderson and Guillen, everyone in this lineup has hit more than .330 in a full season!. And Guillen's hit .320 TWICE and the other two have hit .300. Also, four of the career highs were put up last year and two in 2006, i.e., most of these seasons are not ancient history. These aren't Jason Giambi/Frank Thomas types with no chance of hitting .300 again.

Comments....

Good post - the Tigers' lineup is truly remarkable. There were so many standout stats, good-and-bad, with the Tigers' lineup last year. Between the seasons that Maggs/Guillen/Granderson had, to Gary Sheffield stealing as many bases as he's ever had since his second season in the majors, to Pudge Rodriguez drawing all of nine walks last year, this is a really interesting set of hitters.Posted by Erickson at 3/31/2008 12:11:00 PM

And yet they still lost a game in which Brett Tomko made an appearance. Anything can happen in this game, but seriously though, yeah, incredible lineup there.